XXV 
PRACTICAL IDEAS CONCERNING THE 
ENDOCRINES 
By CHAS. O. Lowry, M.D., Pasadena, Calif. 
The internal secretory glands have become factors 
of greater significance and clinical importance than 
ever before, and their study is attracting world-wide 
attention, especially in an every-day clinical way. The 
one-time theories concerning them now have been 
proven to be facts, and in most instances the old- 
fashioned empirical organotherapy has been supplanted 
by rational and intelligent procedures. 
Endocrinology is the study of the internal secre- 
tions of the ductless glands, their influence over bodily 
functions and systems, and their interdependent re- 
lations to each other. 
In studying the ductless glands, one is attracted 
to the thyroid because of its prominence in the litera- 
ture, and because of its having been so long under 
the scrutiny of internists, and also because Harrower 
has given us an easily applied clinical test of its func- 
tions, the best and only practical test I have known. 
This test depends upon the influence of the thyroid 
upon the pulse and temperature following standard in- 
creasing doses of thyroid administered in a routine 
manner for several days—a record chart being accu- 
rately kept before and after the actual period of gland 
feedines, 
263 
